The Gasparilla Wreath

The Gasparilla Wreath

DIY

Now that Gasparilla is over everyone has a bunch of beads sitting around! Since there are less than 365 days left before the next pirate invasion, here is a DIY to help you start preparing. For anyone who doesn't know about Gasparilla, its is the annual celebration of the invasion of Tampa bay by Jose Gaspar and his scurvy crew.  During the week the Mayor of Tampa hands over the keys of the city to the pirates and later that weekend the pirates hold a victory parade on Bayshore Boulevard. The parade includes eccentric ship themed floats and the pirates hand out beads, coins and other treasures to the crowd. 

The Supplies for this project are very simple and inexpensive, especially since most people have beads from Gasparilla lying around from previous years.

If you can find it I suggest using a styrofoam wreath as your base. Regardless of which base you use I recommend wrapping your wreath in a material that will bond to the hot glue easily and securely. For this project I used a giant spool of twine.  

After I wrapped the entire metal wreath with the twine I wrapped it again with beads. This creates a base to create the illusion of the wreath actually being made out of beads! I also cut the the beads to make them easier to wrap. 

After I finished creating the base of the wreath I bulked up the front. I took a handful of beads, scrambled them all together, placed a big glob of hot glue and placed them on front of the wreath. 

I continued this motion around the rest of the wreath until the front looks full. I then glued all the loose pieces down. 

I bought a spool of ribbon, created a big bow and glued a skull and crossbones to the middle to make it a little more festive. 

I love the way it turned out, now we just need to figure out what to do with rest of the beads.

-Joshua